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DIY PRS Silver Sky-Style Pickguard | Building John Mayer's Tone

I have a new (cleaner) photo now that the PRS SIlver Sky has been in production for a while and the production units are out in the wild. It turns out that the resistor value has changed to 3.3MOhm and that is largely the difference between the prototype and production. This will make the guitar slightly "brighter" than the prototype 2.7MOhms but since the pots could swing at least 10% in value, it really will be slightly different between guitars. Nature of the beast. I recommend Fender Fat 60's pickups as it's the closest tone to Silver Sky pickups off-the-shelf.

Fender Custom Shop Fat 60's Pickups: https://amzn.to/2NJAlsp

3.3MOhm Resistors: https://amzn.to/2rZTX3n CRL 5-Way Switch: https://amzn.to/2IFY4Yw CTS Vintage Style 300kA Volume Pot: https://amzn.to/2kdZnTZ CTS 250kA tone pots: https://amzn.to/2Li0XjY

I went ahead and had made 3x ~6.4k Ohm DC resistance pickups to my specifications. Other than that, here is where I differed from the PRS Silver Sky approach for my own take on what '63.5 is:

  • ~6.4k Ohm DC resistance across all pickups with minimal deviation between them.

  • 1963 Stagger

  • I opted to not go with the Silver Sky 7.25" stagger because the tuning will not be accurate with anything other than 7.25". Most common is 9.5" radius so that could have had tonality problems.

  • This is better for those who would like to drop my loaded pickguard in their strat too.

  • Enamel wiring (late '63)

  • Slightly brighter and warmer (in myth) than early '63 formvar. Electrically it does not make a difference with the insulator type if the thickness is the same but we're being unique, right?

  • Black bottoms (early '63)

Here is the picture that I created based on production Silver Sky photos.

PRS John Mayer Silver Sky Production wiring diagram

Here is the demo of the pickups I made to the specs I mentioned above. This is my #1 pickups to my hear. Ear pleasing in every pickup position and max quack in positions 2 & 4.

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